


Be My Shelter and I'll Be Your Storm

by voices_in_my_head



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Come on people, charriet, this tag must be filled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-21 05:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11350827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: "“I heard about you and Harriet.”Cain makes a noncommittal sound.“Guess you weren’t lying, then,” Cain glances at her from the top of his mug as he takes another sip, slightly lost in the conversation. “When you told me you two couldn’t keep your hands off each other.”"Slightly AU where it takes Harriet five days to come out of the coma instead of one after the stabbing.





	Be My Shelter and I'll Be Your Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Right, so I'm obsessed with Charriet and I think they need all the fics in the world. Pretty much what the summary says; no idea which is more medically inaccurate.

“Cain, don’t!” Moira yells as Cain holds onto Ross, seconds from dropping him from the window.

Cain doesn’t give any notice that he heard her besides glaring at Ross, who seems genuinely scared that Cain will go through with the threat. Cain himself hasn’t decided yet if he’ll drop him or not. From one floor up, chances are Ross will just break something, not actually die. Unless he falls on his head. Statistics were never Cain’s strong suits so he just keeps glaring.

“Harriet wouldn’t have wanted this!” Moira yells and Cain frowns. Finally, he pulls Ross back, who is immediately grabbed by Finn. Cain still keeps a tight hold on Ross’ neck, not wanting him to go anywhere.

“What did you say?” He asks Moira with a dangerous tilt in his voice.

“Harriet. That’s who Ross was threatening to tell me about, isn’t it? Come on Cain, I’m not stupid! You spent the day at the hospital and now this…” she gives a disgusted look to Ross, “I don’t like this anymore than you but killing Ross won’t make anything better.”

“It’ll make me feel better,” Cain replies, shaking Ross for good measure. Ross glares at him and tries to extricate himself but Cain just holds on tighter. Finn has let go of Ross.

“And when Harriet wakes up I’m going to have to tell her that sorry, but you’re not there because you’ve been arrested for murder! Come on, Cain. He’s not worth it.”

Ross makes another attempt at escaping at this comment but Cain continues to hold. This time he even pushes his nails onto his neck.

“Ouch,” Ross complains but Cain isn’t looking at him. He keeps staring at Moira.

She looks seriously at him and Cain knows, better than most, just how much she hates drugs and how much she must hate what these idiots have been up to. She’s also right in that the long run this won’t do anything good to Harriet.

Cain pushes Ross away, who almost falls onto Finn but they manage to stand.

“You get involved with drugs again and this time, I will drop you from the window. And stay away from Debs!” Cain tells Ross for good measure, not having been blind to Debbie’s glances at Ross for the past few weeks.

Ross doesn’t bother replying, taking a hold of Finn’s jacket and starting to drag him away.

“I’m really sorry, we never meant for anything-“ Finn is saying as Ross pulls him through the door.

“Come on!” Ross says and then the Barton brothers are gone.

Cain is left staring at Moira, who crosses her arms.

“Really, Cain? Your girlfriend is fighting for her life and you decided that you should be… what? What exactly where you trying to accomplish?”

“She isn’t my girlfriend,” Cain tells her and receives an unconvinced look from Moira. “She isn’t!” He repeats because he can’t really argue with the second part, can he? Harriet is fighting for her life and he isn’t there.

“It’s their fault that she’s in the hospital,” he tells her, deciding that it doesn’t really matter what Moira thinks about his relationship – not that it is one, not with what he told Harriet just the previous day.

Moira sighs, suddenly looking tired. She passes a hand through her face, “I know, but like I said, this isn’t helping Harriet. So, you’re going to go back to the hospital and you’re going to stay there until she wakes up.”

Cain doesn’t allow himself to think of the possibility of Harriet not waking up, much less saying it out loud. He nods and Moira leads the way out.

Outside, standing by her car, Moira calls his name. Cain stops with the car door open.

“Is it serious? This thing between you and her? I’d say yes since I’ve just seen you almost kill Ross… but let’s be honest, you’ve been wanting to kill him for several years.”

“It’s not any of your business. Not anymore,” Cain tells her and gets inside the car, not allowing the humour that she found in the situation to get to him. Harriet’s life is on the line and if she… if she doesn’t wake up, he will kill Ross.

Cain drives off with Moira still standing outside the car looking at him.

.

Cain spends two days in the hospital before he finally forces himself to go back to work. The doctor told him that they were keeping Harriet in a coma for a week, maybe two. Something about her body needing time to rest. At least, that’s what Cain took from that conversation.

Rumours around the village have started flying around but most people know better than to ask Cain about it. Most people, of course, don’t involve his daughter which is why he isn’t surprised when he rolls from under a car to find Debbie holding two mugs.

She offers him one once he’s up.

“So…” Debbie starts and Cain takes a sip. If he’s going through this conversation, he’s gonna need a cuppa in him first.

“I heard about you and Harriet.”

Cain makes a noncommittal sound.

“Guess you weren’t lying, then,” Cain glances at her from the top of his mug as he takes another sip, slightly lost in the conversation. “When you told me you two couldn’t keep your hands off each other.”

Cain shrugs and finishes his tea.

“Thanks,” he tells Debbie, putting the mug on the counter behind her. He turns around to start on another car.

“Dad, come on,” Debbie calls him and Cain sighs before turning back to her. Anyone else and he’d have just kept walking but this is his daughter and he can’t just turn away like she doesn’t matter to him.

“Is it serious? This thing between you two?”

“There’s nothing between us,” Debbie sends him an unimpressed look, “not anymore, anyway.”

“What happened? She break up with you?”

“Why do you think it was her?” Cain asks, not sure if he should feel insulted or not. As it is, he can’t help a note of resentment onto his voice.

Debbie just shrugs, more than used to his bad moods. “She’s the vicar. I’m guessing it isn’t good for her reputation to date the local thug.”

Cain looks away, “I put an end to it.”

“Why?” Debbie asks and when he looks back at her, she’s crossing her arms, still holding her mug in her right hand.

Cain puts his hands in his overall’s pockets. “Didn’t want her getting hurt.” Debbie raises her eyebrow, deciding that silence is the way to keep him talking. Usually it wouldn’t be; Cain isn’t the type of person that feels like silences need to be filled but again, this is Debbie and he’ll humour her. And if he’s honest with himself, he wants to tell someone about what’s been going on. “It started as a bit of fun and then… It didn’t get serious but it might have… And like you said, her reputation would suffer.”

“So you broke up with her because she’s a vicar?” Debbie raises an eyebrow, “come on, dad, I know you.”

“I broke up with her because I didn’t want her getting hurt, alright?”

Debbie frowns, “what do you mean? You didn’t have anything to do with the stabbing, did you?”

“What?” Cain asks, surprised by the hundred-eighty degrees turn this conversation has taken.

Debbie doesn’t look away from his face as she answers, “some people think that the reason you’re spending so much time at the hospital is because you feel guilty. After stabbing her,” she concludes unnecessarily.

Cain doesn’t reply right away, clenching his jaw from anger. Yeah, he’s done some awful stuff… Actually, it isn’t even that surprising that people are saying that.

With a tired sigh, he goes to lean against the counter next to Debbie.

“I didn’t have anything to do with it, alright? Bloody Ross Barton and his not so innocent younger brother decided that getting involved with drugs was a good idea,” Cain makes a face at that, telling Debbie exactly what he thinks of that idea.

“And how did Harriet get involved?”

“Emma’s car. The drug dealers saw the Barton’s in that car earlier and when they saw the car again… They thought Harriet was involved,” Cain finishes explaining after Debbie gives him a confused look. He looks at the car in front of him as he continues, “and the reason Harriet had Emma’s car was because I didn’t finish fixing the church bus in time and she had work to do. So I told her to take Emma’s car and she did.”

Debbie puts her hand in his arm and squeezes, “that’s not your fault. You didn’t know about the drugs or the car or… Any of it.”

Cain shrugs her off and stands up. He looks at her as he speaks, “it doesn’t matter. Not if she doesn’t wake up.”

“She’s going to wake up, dad. If there’s anything I know about Harriet is that she’s a fighter. She’s gonna pull through this and you…” Debbie stands up straighter, “you’re gonna resolve this thing between the two of you. It’s clear you care about her and I’m guessing she cares about you too so stop being a coward and take a chance. And get back to the hospital, your angry mug is scaring away the clients.”

Cain rolls his eyes but drops the dirty cloth on top of the counter behind Debbie. “The clients are always scared of me.”

“Yes, well, now they’re more. Come on, shoo.”

Cain doesn’t bother replying, just turns around and goes to the office to get changed. Still, he can’t help the little smile that steals onto his face at his daughter’s words. He still has reservations regarding getting too deeply involved with Harriet but the fact is that he’s been scared out of his mind for the past three days because she got attacked and whether he wants to admit it or not, he’s already deep into it.

.

Two more days pass with Cain barely eating or sleeping. He spends all the visiting hours in the hospital, although not always in Harriet’s room. Other people come to visit.

Emma and Laurel are there every day. Emma still questions his presence but Cain doesn’t reply to her.

Laurel, meanwhile, has decided that if he’s there it’s for a good reason and has started to smile at him. Sometimes she’ll even chat to him.

They aren’t exactly deep conversations; they’re not friends, don’t really know each other that well, but they both care deeply about Harriet. Laurel tells him how strong Harriet is, how she’ll make it through, and Cain isn’t sure if she’s trying to convince him or her but either way he nods along to it.

He doesn’t tell her the same. It’s simply not the way he’s wired. There’s some people he’ll give comfort but those can probably be counted in one hand, maybe two, and Laurel simply isn’t there. So he nods along and Laurel keeps promising the both of them that Harriet will wake up and be fine.

Cain is sitting outside the bedroom with one hand on the armchair supporting his head, close to falling asleep, when Laurel comes out of Harriet’s bedroom in a hurry.

“They’re taking her out of the coma,” she tells Cain and immediately turns around to go back to standing outside the bedroom. Cain follows in a hurry.

They watch silently as the doctor does whatever you do when you need to take someone out of a medically induced coma. Holding his breath, Cain watches as Harriet slowly starts moving around.

It takes her a few seconds of looking around before she takes the oxygen mask from her face. She talks to the doctors, though Cain can’t hear their words.

Laurel holds onto his arm and when he glances at her, she smiles at him. He doesn’t smile back but Laurel doesn’t seem to care, simply squeezing his arm once before letting go.

The doctor comes out after a couple minutes of conversation with Harriet, who looks at the both of them through the window. Cain can see Laurel through the corner of his eye waving but he just stands still.

“You can go in, now. But only for some minutes. She still needs to rest,” the doctor tells the both of them.

Cain finally looks away from Harriet to Laurel. “You should-“ He starts offering, even though all he wants is to go inside that room right now.

Laurel shakes her head, “no, no, you go in. I’ll go in after you.” Cain frowns at her but Laurel smiles and waves her hand, like dissipating his worries. “Go on. She wants to see you, I’m sure.”

Cain isn’t sure of that but he nods in thanks and goes inside.

“Hey,” he says from the doorway.

“Hey yourself,” Harriet tells him and Cain wants to rush to her side but forces himself to walk normally to her bed. She looks tired and thinner and not the way Cain is used to seeing her at all.

He sits in the chair by her bed.

Harriet looks back at him and for some seconds they just stare at each other.

“So, why are you here?” She asks and clenches her jaw and Cain just wants to take her pain away.

He takes a hold of her hand, which feels way too cold to the touch. He kisses it. “Why do you think?”

Harriet smiles for just some seconds before it falls from her face, “my near-death experience make you realize I was not, in fact, a cheap floozy?”

Cain clenches his jaw but keeps looking at Harriet.

“I’m sorry about that,” he forces out because he doesn’t enjoy apologizing but Harriet deserves it. “You didn’t deserve that.”

“No, I didn’t.” They stare at each other for some more seconds before she sighs again, “I’m glad you’re here.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” he tells her and this time Harriet’s smile stays there.

 


End file.
